CREMATION.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The resolution of the Shanghai ratepayers to establish a crematorium in the Model Settlement may excite some little interest in the subject here. Forty-seven voted for the resolution and thirty-two against, which may probably be taken as indicative of the relative strength of the cremation and anti- cremation parties not only in Shanghai but in other similarly constituted communities in which ignorant prejudice and foolish senti- mentaresubordinated to sound common sense. Not that we wish to stigmatise all the oppo- nents of cremation as ignorant, prejudicd, or foolishly sentimental, but theirs is by the nature of the case the side which ignorance, prejudice, and sentiment founded on custom -support. | Burial has always been the mode of disposing of the dead amongst Christian nations and the mass of the people believe it to be the correct way, although not one in a thousand would be able to formulate any grounds for their belief, and few will under take an independent inquiry as to why an old custom should be altered. In communi- ties such as those of the Far East, however,
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[March 28, 1895.
where the tide fills the soil with water twice of the movement seem to have been working in in every twenty-four hours, and the earth is the dark, figures ranging from £800 to £2,000 riddled by land crabs and earthwormis. having been mentioned. Even the larger it did not seem to him that he had aum, we should say, will be insufficient to overstated the case in what he had said meet the initial expense, which it would be as to the dangers of the present system. As safer to place at Tis. 30,000 to Tls. 50,000, to the danger arising from Chinese coffins while the annual cost of working and upkeep scattered over the fields, ho said there was will probably not fall far short of Tls. 2,000. usually a quantity of quicklime and charcoal In Hongkong it will be observed that in the placed in Chinese coffins, they were hermeti- new Sanitary By-laws power is conferred on cally sealed by a double lid, the seams were the Sanitary Board to cremate the bodies of covered with glue, and, according to Sir persons dying from dangerous diseases, and HENRY THOMPSON, placing the body in if that power is to be exercised a proper quicklime nearly approached in value to the crematorium should be provided. In that perfection of cremation. At the same time case the establishment might be maintained he regretted that the Chinese had given up, on a permanent footing so as to he available except in the case of Buddhist priests, at any time for creating the bodies of per- the practice of burning the dead. As to the sons who might have expressed a preference cost of a crematorium, the speaker said he for that system. was not in a position to give any estimate; a Siemens' furnace cost £00, but whatever the cost they should have the best furnace The conferring on the Sanitary Board of that could be procured and "the expense power to cremate the bodies of persons would be saved to the community, if not dying from certain specified diseases has directly to the Council, by a diminished created some consternation amongst certain cost of funerals. At present we pay some sections of the community. We. under. Tls. 90. I shall be disappointed if the cost stand that in reply to inquiries that have a of burning a body exceeds Tls. 40 or Tls. been made semi-official assurances have been 50." Here we should think Mr. BUCHANAN given to the effect that no apprehension was unduly sanguine, for it is the pomp need be entertained, on the subject, as no and display of funerals that makes them Board in the world would cremate a body expensive, rather than the mere cost of the unless at the special request of the deceased coffin, and the adoption of burning instead or his friends, and that cremation will be of burial would not necessarily make any adopted as a rule only in the case of Hindoos, alteration in that respect. Mr. G. W. NOEL, the usual form of burial being retained in the
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who seconded the resolution, said :—
will soon awake. It is for that awakening we must
II.
O
consisting for the most part of specially selected men of intelligence and education, public opinion is more advanced, and whereas in England the number of ratepayers who would actively favour cremation would be small, at Shanghai we find there is a substan- tial majority in favour of it. Public opinion in Hongkong would probably be divided in
case of other nationalities. For our own about the same proportion as regards the re-
It is argued by many that it would be next to use.
part, we hold cremation to be the best form lative merits of the two systems, but on the less to introduce cremation here, as the natives would of disposing of the dead and would be glad practical question as to whether in the par never take to it, and the comparatively few foreigners to see it universally adopted, but probably ticular circumstances of the colony it was
who might would make it an unnecessary expense, not even the most enthusiastic believer in Hare the natives, may I ask, takeu kindly, and at desirable to incur the expense of establish- once, to any of the Western: ideas-telegraphs, rail the system would advocate its being made ing a crematorium the result might be some ways, roads, carriages, etc.? No, but they are rapidly compulsory in the present state of public what different. In this colony the European seeing the advantages of them, and as soon as they opinion and sentiment on the subject. Giv
are convinced of the practicability and economy of cometeries do not constitute a nuisance or a cremation, he would be a bold man who would saying the members of the Sanitary Board, pre. danger to health, their location being at a safe they would not take to that also. Think of the vast sent and future, credit for possessing an or- distance from any residences and the soil as thing of the waste of that land, and on the passage
sums of money spent on land for graves, to say no- dinary share of common sense, we must suppose well adapted for the reception of the dead as
of coffins from place to place, that would be saved that they would never wantonly outrage the could be found anywhere. And it is only with And when the country comes to be opened up. and feelings of the relatives of a deceased person railways and roads constructed, do you think the reference to the Europeans that the question Government will treat the genre mounds, and their by cremating the body, if the relatives has been raised at Shanghai, it not being in contents, with which the country is strewn, with the objected, unless under pressure of circum- contemplation that the Chinese would use same respect and consideration that purchasers of stances that might seem to render that course laud here have been accustomed to do? Certainly the crematorium, at all events for a long not, and when they see the same thing happen her essential for the public welfare. And, after time to come, and of the Europeans a con- that has happened in hundreds of instances in our the painful experience of last year, it is pos siderable proportion will probably continue little island, graves desecrate and ancestral remains sible conceive of circumstances in which to favour the old, form of burial, Mr. J. L. dumped into the most convenient and handy spot, or
else rudely burnt, they will appreciate the advantages an intelligent Board might deem the adop- SCOTT, speaking on behalf of the Municipal of cremation as well as any one else. China is still tion of cremation advisable. In case of a Council, said he thought the Council should slumbering, but she is now being roughly shaken and severe epidemic of plague, if the bodies of Consider only the practical side of the ques-be prepared, and it is the rising generation we must persons dying from the disease could be im- tion, that so far no proof had been given aim at educating with object lessons, and the sooner mediately removed from the hospital to an that the present cemetery was prejudicial to those of practical utility are introduced the better.
adjacent crematorium and there burnt, in- the health of the community, that the We wish we could share Mr. NoEL's views stead of being conveyed by cart and boat to a financial result of the establishment as to the rapid advance of the Chinese, but cemery at some distant point of the island, of a crematoriuin was uncertain, and that unfortunately the people generally are it would be better and safer in every respect the Council saw no reason to make any opposed to improvements of all kinds, and except in that of sentiment. It is, however, change in the present mode of burial. That their views on the particular question of the not kely that the Sanitary Board would would perhaps be the view taken by the disposal of the dead are not likely to be outrage sentiment to the extent of adopting Hongkong Government, but Shanghai is modified in any degree by the example of a cremation for all alike, but the fact remains more fortunate than this colony inasmuch as few foreigners at Shanghai adopting the that the by-laws passed the other day give the ratepayers in the Settlement are able to principle of cremation Those who voted in them power to do so. There is nothing in dictate how their money shall be spent ; they favour of the resolution must be presumed the by-laws themselves to show that the pro- rule themselves instead of being ruled by to have done so simply as a matter of vision is intended to apply to Hindoos on,ly offrials, and if they choose to have a crema principle, because they believe cremation to and in interpreting a legislative enactment, torium, or anything else, and are prepared be the best mode of disposing of the dead when the words themselves are clear, it is not to you the money for it, no one can say and that facilities should be afforded for those allowable to go outside the four corners
to find enactment
out what them n
who wish to adopt that system. The imme-of the The gemral arguments used at the Shang-diate practical effect on the health of the com- the intention of the legislature was. In hai meeting in favour of cremation were of munity will of course be infinitesimal, for the present instance it appears it was the ordinary description, with which our the probable number of cremations annually intended that only the bodies of Hindoos readers are al.doubtless familiar, and we has been placed at thirteen only, but even should be cremated, but that intention has do not propose to refer to them in detail ex if it were very much larger it would still be not been expressed or given effect to, and cept in so far as they specially touch the small as compared with the large number the Sanitary Board may if it thinks fit bury local conditions. J. BUCHANAN, who of burials that will continue to take place. Hindoos or adopt cremation in the case of The by-law does not moved that the Munipal Council be autho- But all reforms must have a beginning and other nationalities,
to be con.
for those who desire rised to erect a crematorum and that a sum the Shanghai ratepayers are
secure cremation sufficient for that purpoe be added to the gratulated on having decided to make a it nor does it protect from that system The whole budget, said that in a few years the new commencement in the matter of reforming the those who object to cemetery would be the centre of a large system of disposing of the dead. As to the thing is left to the discretion of the Sanitary village, and that in a place like Shanghai, practical question of the cost, the promoters Board, and the only protection either Hin
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